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Senate OKs START deal

The vote was 71-26, with 13 Republicans bucking their party and backing the treaty. | CNN screengrab
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Moments before the vote, Kyl called the Senate a "rubber stamp" for the president and dismissed the treaty as a Cold War relic.

"This may be the last arms-control agreement for a while and maybe we can get back to focusing on the real issues, issues of proliferation, or terrorism, dealing with threats from countries like North Korea and Iran," Kyl said on the Senate floor.

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"It is nice to have another Cold War-era type of [deal] with Russia, but I suggest we move away from the distraction of agreements like this."

Their opposition, however, failed to derail growing GOP support for the treaty, which received strong endorsements from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The pivotal turning point came Tuesday, when the No. 3 Republican, Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, broke ranks and announced he would back the agreement. Within a matter of hours, 11 Republicans had joined Democrats in a 67-28 procedural vote to end debate and move toward final consent, all but ensuring the treaty would reach the two-thirds threshold needed for approval.

In Wednesday’s ratification vote, 13 Republicans supported the treaty: Alexander, Dick Lugar of Indiana, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Bob Corker of Tennessee, Johnny Isakson of Georgia, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, George Voinovich of Ohio, Mike Johanns of Nebraska, Bob Bennett of Utah, and Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both of Maine.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who initially said he would miss votes this week as he recovered from prostate cancer surgery, was in attendance and voted to ratify the treaty. But three Republicans who are retiring — Sam Brownback of Kansas, Jim Bunning of Kentucky and Kit Bond of Missouri — were absent and did not vote.

Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.), who shepherded the treaty through the Senate, hailed the Senate's vote and the treaty's ratification as a step toward making the country safer.

“This historic Senate vote makes our country safer and moves the world further away from the danger of nuclear disaster,” he said in a statement. “The winners are not defined by party or ideology. The winners are the American people, who are safer with fewer Russian missiles aimed at them, and who benefit knowing that our cooperation with Russia in curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions and supplying our troops in Afghanistan can be strengthened.”

The media and many of our politicians keep perpetuating this 'we won, they lost' mind set. Obama didn't win or lose-the republicans or democrats didn't win or lose. The key is did the country and its people 'win'. The rest is pure hoopla not worth reporting. The 'gotcha' attitude among politicians has got to come to an end before the people even begin to regain faith in them.

With Russia proliferating nuclear technology to Iran(not to mention giving them state-of-the-art missile defenses) and a promise of three nuclear reactors to Hugo Chavez, including an experimental one(not including arms and planes), this treaty is largely pointless. The treaty doesn't include any provisions for proliferating technology to our enemies. Basically it's just something Obama can look good for signing and he can read off his teleprompter. Other than that it's just putting our collective head in the sand because it's not addressing the real problems.

It took them long enough didn't it. They had it sense April of this year..Some how I think the GOP is going to make us all pay for these bills getting past. They were great bills that helped others and help with world peace. They may not want to belive it..Because they hate the DNC so much because of caring of others and this country.

We need to look at the glass half full and not half empty. But we look at both sides of glass..I do think the GOP do any caring for the wealthy and big bussiness, not for others, unless they are bullied into...We also have to be looking over our shoulders because the GOP is out for the blood of those whom care for others.

It is a shame however that so many Republicans repeated false claims about this treaty being rushed when they were involved in it from the begining in April and they were the ones who asked or postonments till now. And, as for it not being well known to the Senators, it was talked about in the ForeignTRelation Committee 20 times in hearings on the treaty. If some Republican's like DeMint refused to show up most of the time, that is his fault. It is like saying the test was unfair because you missed most of the classes on the subject matter.

No Victory for this White House and certainly No Victory for Most Americans. The Republican Party and the far Right Wing that diminished our middle-class, proverted the views of Christian values of givening and twisted them into God greed is Godly, has destroyed S.S. and Medicare by refusing to fund other social services as the needs grew. S.S. & Medicare could have been a great system with monioring and proper funding. Matter of fact Medicare with their approved private insurance Supplemental coverage is excellent managed care compared to private insurance attempt at manage care HMO and PPO. But Capitalism continued to entitle the wealthy to hoard Trillions of taxable dollars out of circulations in Tax shelters for large corporations and wealthy, win. We don't need to worry about terrorism or Russia any country just our own attacking our people. Sorry. I love my country and I want our people to wrap their minds around our problems at home and make the people in office stand accountable to their loyalities fort ALL THE PEOPLE. No wins, just more fear issues, no wins.

No Victory for this White House and certainly No Victory for Most Americans. The Republican Party and the far Right Wing that diminished our middle-class, proverted the views of Christian values of givening and twisted them into God greed is Godly, has destroyed S.S. and Medicare by refusing to fund other social services as the needs grew. S.S. & Medicare could have been a great system with monioring and proper funding. Matter of fact Medicare with their approved private insurance Supplemental coverage is excellent managed care compared to private insurance attempt at manage care HMO and PPO. But Capitalism continued to entitle the wealthy to hoard Trillions of taxable dollars out of circulations in Tax shelters for large corporations and wealthy, win. We don't need to worry about terrorism or Russia any country just our own attacking our people. Sorry. I love my country and I want our people to wrap their minds around our problems at home and make the people in office stand accountable to their loyalities fort ALL THE PEOPLE. No wins, just more fear issues, no wins.

No Victory for this White House and certainly No Victory for Most Americans. The Republican Party and the far Right Wing that diminished our middle-class, proverted the views of Christian values of givening and twisted them into God greed is Godly, has destroyed S.S. and Medicare by refusing to fund other social services as the needs grew. S.S. & Medicare could have been a great system with monioring and proper funding. Matter of fact Medicare with their approved private insurance Supplemental coverage is excellent managed care compared to private insurance attempt at manage care HMO and PPO. But Capitalism continued to entitle the wealthy to hoard Trillions of taxable dollars out of circulations in Tax shelters for large corporations and wealthy, win. We don't need to worry about terrorism or Russia any country just our own attacking our people. Sorry. I love my country and I want our people to wrap their minds around our problems at home and make the people in office stand accountable to their loyalities fort ALL THE PEOPLE. No wins, just more fear issues, no wins.

No Victory for this White House and certainly No Victory for Most Americans. The Republican Party and the far Right Wing that diminished our middle-class, proverted the views of Christian values of givening and twisted them into God greed is Godly, has destroyed S.S. and Medicare by refusing to fund other social services as the needs grew. S.S. & Medicare could have been a great system with monioring and proper funding. Matter of fact Medicare with their approved private insurance Supplemental coverage is excellent managed care compared to private insurance attempt at manage care HMO and PPO. But Capitalism continued to entitle the wealthy to hoard Trillions of taxable dollars out of circulations in Tax shelters for large corporations and wealthy, win. We don't need to worry about terrorism or Russia any country just our own attacking our people. Sorry. I love my country and I want our people to wrap their minds around our problems at home and make the people in office stand accountable to their loyalities fort ALL THE PEOPLE. No wins, just more fear issues, no wins.

"This may be the last arms-control agreement for a while, and maybe we can get back to focusing on the real issues, issues of proliferation, or terrorism, dealing with threats from countries like North Korea and Iran," Kyl said on the Senate floor.

Is Kyl really this stupid? Arguably the biggest point of the treaty is to get inspectors back into the former Soviet Union and make sure that all of that fissionable material is accounted for. The very people that this nitwit is talking about are willing to pay a LOT for it. Not knowing where it is at poses a huge danger to us all.

this contract is so open to interpretation, especially in the missile defense part, that it may be one of the shortest treaty we ever had with Russia. so no reason to worry about it. On the other hand the Dems should apologize to the public about their whining about Repubs not willing to listen to Obama! The Repubs are the constructive and bipartisan power. I have not heard that even one Dem voted against the treaty, a clear sign that they are the partisan party! No one can argue that Repubs are actually open for arguments!